Ship Life: Days at Sea 1, 2, & 3

We woke up in New Orleans and immediately got ready and packed up our stuff. We were so ready to get on the ship! We ran to walgreens to get some last minute stuff and headed to the port. We weren't really sure how it would go with parking and such, so we decided to be early. We headed for the dreaded lines boarding the ship, and we had our first blowout of the trip. Lynsey's bag completely ripped, so she had to drag it behind her through the lines and "bear hug" carry it the other half of the time. Although it was funny, we all hoped this wasn't a sign of how our trip would go!! 

We successfully got on the ship around 1pm and went to our room to drop off our carry on bags... here's a view of our tiny room. This was before the bunk beds were dropped from the ceiling, so after this picture we had two ladders right in the middle of the room and about half the space that you see here. We also had our suitcases delivered later that day, so add 4 large, fully loaded suitcases and a lot of clothes strewn around the room. It was a cramped week to say the least!

 We were so excited that we dropped our bags and headed out to take pictures of the ship and the view from the ship....

New Orleans Skyline

Track on the Ship

Back half of the Ship

Inside the "lobby"

Bridge in New Orleans

Water slide!

It was awfully chilly that afternoon/evening, so we didn't get any sun time in. We walked around the ship to see what all was there, then made our last calls for the week to our boyfriends :( and got ready for dinner. We attempted the self timer on my camera and took a picture of all four of us before dinner! It was a little bit off center, but I think that's the only picture we got that night!!

The following day, we attempted to get up and work out. However, we didn't think about how difficult it would be to jog around a track on a moving ship. It felt like you were flying down one side and moving in slow motion on the other. It was VERY windy and much more difficult than running on a track or on the trails back home. I made it about a mile before I gave up. Better luck next time. Instead, I ate all day and got a lot of sun! I took a few pictures of the beautiful scenery!

Hooray for sunshine!

Blue skies :)

Beautiful blue water!

They also had a hairy chest competition that day .... Here are some wonderful memories of that! The guy below was the winner. He was definitely shakin' what his momma gave him! It's hard to see, but he was actually very hairy.

 Every evening before dinner (after the sun went down), we stopped off at the hot tub for an hour or so. It felt AMAZING. Our favorite waiter, Orlando from India, always found us and brought us fun buckets with ice sculpture faces. One night, he even brought on that he said was Snoopy! We met so many people in the hot tubs throughout the week, it was nuts! So fun :)

Fun Tiramisu Martini!

After we got ready, we usually had a little bit of time to kill, so we would go to this bar near the casino. They had a band and a dance floor there as well, so it was entertaining. Somehow, we always got pulled onto the dance floor by some middle aged women to help them get the party started. It was a fun way to waste time! When we weren't the ones on the dance floor, the people that were usually gave us a good view. It was a prime place for "people watching" (one of my favorite things to do in life).

Heidi and I at the bar

The girls on the dance floor

This was the first of two formal nights we had on the ship. It was fun to have something to get all dressed up for - that usually doesn't happen anymore unless it's wedding season! Dinner was SO good every night. I didn't take any pictures because I thought it would be overkill on the photos, but I had seafood or prime rib pretty much every night. I was in heaven.

That day at lunch, we met a couple of old men that were on the cruise with their dance class. Apparently, they took dance lessons for (from what I could gather) Latin music. They told us about a lounge type bar on the ship and told us that there was a band playing and invited us to go dance with them. We took them up on the offer, and even though the entire dance floor was their class (mostly older folks), it was a fun night. I must have looked like a hot mess out there, because the only instruction that my "teacher" -a member of the Latin band- kept telling me was "Feel the rhythm...just have to feel the rhythm.... ba. ba. ba ba ba...." :( I always thought I had good rhythm and some killer moves! ha!

The following day was pretty much the same routine. I attempted to get up and run on the treadmill in the "gym" on the ship, but that was also a no go. I have a hatred for dreadmills. Especially on moving ships. I accepted the fact that I would not be working out the rest of the trip. There goes my training & weight loss!
There were a few highlights for the day - one was  the ice sculpture demonstration. I must have been too far away or at a bad angle, because I could not, for the life of me, figure out what it was. It slightly resembled Sonic the Hedgehog, but I have my doubts that it was supposed to. We also bought the drink of the day - a huge blow fish drink! Mmm!

The biggest highlight was buying our excursion tickets! We planned to go on a party boat while in Grand Cayman Island, and to go Zip Lining in Mexico! I was so ready to get to these places! Enough of the ship for now!






The rest of the night was typical, went to the hot tubs, then got ready, then went to watch the people on the dance floor :) Here are a few photos!